“He is a seminal leader of his field and a visionary leader and spokesperson for a major urban region of our country that is finding a new way to thrive.”

Frederick Bland, Managing Partner

New York City’s Beyer Blinder Belle architecture and planning firm

The prize recognizes notable contributions and accomplishments
by an architectural educator in New York State. Shibley accepted
the award at the AIANYS annual convention, held recently in
Syracuse.

Since joining the School of Architecture and Planning in 1982,
Shibley has served as a professor in both the architecture and
planning departments, with eight years as chair of architecture
(1982-90). He was appointed dean in 2011.

He has been a teacher both inside the classroom and out,
engaging generations of UB students in producing award-winning
plans that reimagined Buffalo and Western New York. Under his
leadership, his team, including students, took part in crafting
plans for Buffalo’s downtown, waterfront and Olmsted parks
system, along with the city’s visionary comprehensive
plan.

Shibley’s efforts “revived the very idea of planning
and urban design in Western New York,” the AIA
Buffalo/Western New York chapter said in a letter nominating him
for the state organization’s Educator Award. “The
city-region is now the School of Architecture and Planning’s
education and research laboratory, where Bob combines political
leadership and robust public engagement with scholarship, planning
and design action by faculty, students and staff.”

As founding director of The Urban Design Project in the School
of Architecture and Planning, Shibley served as principal
investigator on urban design plans for the Larkin District, Niagara
Falls and the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

Most recently, he led the UB Regional Institute/Urban Design
Project team in the creation of the Regional Economic Development
Plan, which yielded $100 million in state support for the region in
its first year. The team currently is supporting the Regional
Economic Development Council in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s $1
billion Buffalo development fund.

As senior adviser to the UB president and now as the
university’s first campus architect, Shibley has led an
ambitious, award-winning comprehensive plan to enhance UB’s
three campuses as part of the UB 2020 strategic plan. In this role,
Shibley oversaw the design and installation of UB’s Solar
Strand, a 3,200-panel, ground-mounted solar array and land-art
installation, the largest publicly accessible array in the U.S.

“Creating places for people and assuring our education
programs teach people how to do it is what Bob’s career has
been about from the beginning,” Frederick Bland, managing
partner for New York City’s Beyer Blinder Belle architecture
and planning firm, said a letter of support for Shibley’s
Educator Award nomination. Beyer Blinder Belle acted in a
consulting role on UB’s comprehensive plan.

“He is a seminal leader of his field” and “a
visionary leader and spokesperson for a major urban region of our
country that is finding a new way to thrive,” Bland
wrote.

Shibley holds a master of architecture degree in urban design
from The Catholic University of America, and bachelor of
architecture and bachelor of science in psychology degrees from the
University of Oregon.